Penn State, LSU prepare for second-round rematch

Last Modified: Monday, March 25, 2013 5:51 PM

BATON ROUGE (AP) — Penn State coach Coquese Washington would like to believe her team's experience beating LSU on the Lady
Tigers' home court in the second round of last year's NCAA tournament would bode well for Tuesday night's rematch.

She'd be pleased if LSU's relative shortage of healthy players was something Penn State could exploit.

Washington is also wise enough — she has undergraduate and law degrees from Notre Dame, after all — to be cautious about the
Lady Lions' favored status against an LSU team which that has won eight of its last nine games.

"They're now playing their best basketball of the season, playing with a high level of confidence and playing on their home
floor," Washington said of the Lady Tigers. "That's tough to play against, so we've got to be ready."

Third-seeded Penn State (26-5), which
advanced with an 85-55, first-round demolition of Cal Poly on Sunday
night, has a deeper
lineup and better resume than LSU (21-11), which held on against
Green Bay after nearly squandering an 18-point second-half
lead.

Complicating matters for the Lady Tigers is the uncertain status of junior guard and emotional leader Jeanne Kenney, who banged
heads with teammate Adrienne Webb and was carried off the floor Sunday night holding a towel over her face.

LSU coach Nikki Caldwell said tests were
ongoing Monday to determine if Kenney's injury was serious enough to
sideline her
Tuesday night. If Kenney is out, LSU, whose motto has been "Eight
is enough," (after the old TV series) will have only seven
available players.

"The thing is, they've played with limited
numbers all year. So they know how to play with seven people the whole
game," Washington
said. "They've dealt with it very, very well.

"We want to dictate the tempo," Washington continued. "It's going to be a contrast in styles. We want it up-tempo, they probably
want it a little bit slower. So we'll see which style can kind of win out."

Washington added that when she was an assistant coach on Notre Dame's 2001 national title team, the Irish's rotation was limited
to eight players, "So I'm not feeling sorry for Nikki Caldwell. She'll be fine."

Working in the Lady Tigers' favor is that
their short rotation has required the players who are available —
including talented
freshman guard Danielle Ballard and 6-foot-4 freshman reserve
center Derreyal Youngblood — to gain invaluable experience.
All the while, the team has jelled into a unit much more cohesive
and formidable now than when it lost six of nine games from
early January to early February.

"We've fought through adversity all year long," said All-Southeastern Conference forward Theresa Plaisance. "This is just
going to be another test."

The 40-year-old Caldwell went so far as to compare her squad to the fictional youth baseball team depicted in the movie "The
Bad News Bears," the original version of which was a hit when she was a kid in the 1970s.

"They weren't really good early and they just plugged away, plugged away, and their confidence started to build," Caldwell
said. "I'm proud of them for getting themselves into a position to compete again against a great team like Penn State."

LSU has players versatile enough to jump between several positions, allowing them to match up well with opponents despite
their lack of depth.

That's one reason why Caldwell, when asked about the prospect of having only seven players, responded, "As long as three of
them don't foul out, we'll be OK."

A prime example is the 6-5 Plaisance, an outside scoring threat that Washington called a "match-up nightmare," and one of
the biggest differences from the LSU team that Penn State vanquished a year ago.

So while the setting of this season's rematch is familiar, Penn State guard Alex Bentley said, "LSU has changed. We've changed.
So it's a whole different ball game now."

While LSU's changes are easy to notice with
different players emerging in central roles, Penn State has most of its
top players
back from last year, including Bentley, Big Ten player of the year
Maggie Lucas and front-court players Mia Nickson and Nikki
Greene.

"We play a better, balanced inside-outside
game," Bentley said. "The guards are looking for the posts and the posts
are able
to kick out to the guards, so that's something we've definitely
improved on — and our defense has definitely gotten better."

The rematch also features two coaches with a lot in common.

They competed as players — Washington at
Notre Dame and Caldwell at Tennessee — and now as coaches. They're also
friends,
as well as examples of successful women who are also mothers of
small children, and who highlight their femininity by wearing
fashionable shoes on the bench.

When asked jokingly if it's intimidating to
coach against someone with a shoe collection like that of Caldwell, who
wore leopard-print,
high-heel ankle boots on the sideline Sunday night, Washington
responded, "Did you see how high my heels are? They're not
as fancy, not as much animal print, but the heel is pretty high.
I'm only 5-6, but on game day I'm like 5-10."